Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden is a botanical garden in London . It is the second oldest botanical garden in England after the Oxford Botanical Garden and the oldest botanical garden in London.
location
The garden now covers 1.53 hectares. It is located in Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . The triangular site is bordered by the Embankment, Royal Hospital Road and Swan Walk.
history
The garden was established as a pharmacist's garden in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, founded in 1617 . In 1776 the garden was surrounded by a 131 m long wall. The first greenhouse was set up in 1680. Heated greenhouses have been in evidence since 1685 and were described by John Evelyn and Hans Sloane.
In 1713, Hans Sloane acquired the approximately 1.6 hectares adjoining the garden property from his son-in-law Charles Cheyne and left the property to the pharmacists' company in 1722 for an annual lease of £ 5. In return, he asked the Pharmacists' Society to submit a report to the Royal Society each year with 50 newly described plant species until 2000 initial descriptions were written. Another condition was that the site should serve as a pharmacy garden forever. The rent is still paid to Sloane's descendants today.
In 1724, Isaac Rand became the first Praefectus Horti of the Chelsea Physic Garden . During his time as garden director, Carl von Linné visited the garden in 1736 and was supported by Elizabeth Blackwell , who made drawings for A Curious Herbal there . In 1732 Sloane had an orangery built, which was demolished in the mid-19th century. In 1733 a statue of Sloane was erected by Michael Ruysbrack and is now in the British Museum . Under Philip Miller , the Chelsea Physic Garden developed into one of the most biodiverse gardens of the time. The City Parochial Foundation took over the garden in 1899, and in 1983 it became the responsibility of a foundation that opened the garden to the public. The garden now also has an education center for school classes and lectures, as well as the inevitable sales room. A historical tour leads through the different epochs of its development in the individual parts of the garden.
garden
The garden is climatically favorable. The largest outdoor olive tree in Great Britain thrives in the mild maritime climate . The first Cedar of Lebanon was planted in Great Britain in 1663 . The seeds came from Paul Hermann , professor of botany in Leiden and head of the local Hortus academicus . The tree was felled in the winter of 1903, but seedlings still grow in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens today .
The pharmaceutical beds show traditional medicinal plants. Medicinal plants from other parts of the world, such as ginkgo, can be seen in the Garden of World Medicine established in 1993 . Other discounts show fragrant plants for perfume production and plants from the Canary Islands , for example the various endemic viper head species and aeonia . A rock garden was laid out in 1773 and is now a listed building. It contains stones from the Tower of London , chalk and flint, and basalt from the Hafnaefjorhur volcano , which the St Lawrence, Joseph Banks ' ship , brought as ballast in 1772. The adjoining pond is decorated with a giant clam that James Cook acquired on his first Pacific voyage from 1768–1771.
Over a hundred different species of snowdrops ( Galanthus gracilis , Galanthus nivalis , Galanthus elwesii , Galanthus plicatus , Leucojum vernum and others) grow in the garden . They can be discovered on their own circular route. Greenhouses contain ferns, tropical orchids, Mediterranean plants (including a collection of endemic plants from Crete) and plants from the Canary Islands. Toads, frogs and newts live in Fortune's Tank Pond, which was restored in 2004. The newest department is a garden with food and useful plants (Garden of edible plants).
The garden has maintained an index seminorum since 1683 , which is continued today by volunteers. Seeds are also available for sale in the garden, but cannot be grown commercially.
Head Gardener ( Curator )
- Spencer Piggott, approx. 1677/78
- Richard Pratt, documented in 1678
- John Watts, pharmacist, 1680–1692/93
- Samuel Doody, 1692–1706 (?)
- Committee from 1707
- Philip Miller , 1721-1770
- William Forsyth , 1771-1779
- John Fairbairn, 1784-1814
- William Anderson, 1815-1846
- Robert Fortune , 1846-1848
- Thomas Moore, 1848-1887
- Job vacant, 1887–1899
- William Hales, 1899-1937
- George William Robinson , 1937-1942
- Position not filled, 1942–1946
- William Gregor MacKenzie, 1946–1973
- Allan Paterson, 1973-1981
- Duncan Donald, 1982-1990
- Sue Minter, 1991-2001
- Rosie Atkins, 2001-2010
- Christopher Bailes, from 2011
William Aiton was trained by Philipp Miller and was chief gardener between 1755 and 1759.
literature
- Frederic Dawtrey Drewitt: The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea . 1st edition, Chapman & Dodd, London / Sydney 1922 ( online ).
- Henry Field: Memoirs, historical and illustrative of the botanick garden at Chelsea, London . R. Gilbert, London 1820 ( online ).
- Henry Field: Memoirs of the Botanic Garden at Chelsea belonging to the society of Apothecaries of London . Revised, corrected, and continued to the present time, by RH Semple. Gilbert & Rivington, 1878 ( online ).
- Sue Minter 2010. The Apotecaries' Garden. A history of the Chelsea Physics Garden. Stroud, History Press. New edition, original edition 2000 by Sutton.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ London AZ, Sevenoaks, Geographer's AZ Map company Limited, 8th Edition 2009, 17-18
- ↑ Sue Minter 2010. The Apotecaries' Garden. A history of the Chelsea Physics Garden. Stroud, History Press, Jan.
- ↑ Sue Minter 2010. The Apotecaries' Garden. A history of the Chelsea Physics Garden. Stroud, History Press, Jan.
- ↑ a b Abigail Willis: The London Garden Book AZ . Metro, London 2012, p. 58.
- ↑ so Minter. Presumably the city Hafnarfjörður is meant
- ↑ Sue Minter 2010. The Apotecaries' Garden. A history of the Chelsea Physics Garden. Stroud, History Press, 33
- ↑ Sue Minter 2010. The Apotecaries' Garden. A history of the Chelsea Physics Garden. Stroud, History Press, Jan.
- ↑ Sue Minter 2010. The Apotecaries' Garden. A history of the Chelsea Physics Garden. Stroud, History Press, Appendix 1
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 6 ″ N , 0 ° 9 ′ 46 ″ W.